


The Enemy of My Enemy

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage, The A-Team (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 07:45:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3166973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leverage International comes up against the A-Team on a case where the only bad guys are the ones writing the checks.  After the usual push and pull, the two teams finally agree to work together.  In other news, Faceman discovers how lucky he is that he met Parker <i>after</i> No Stabbing Wednesdays became a thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Enemy of My Enemy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mpatientdreamr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mpatientdreamr/gifts).



The AR-15s were overkill; if he hadn’t just gone five rounds with a very large, very well trained special forces vet, Eliot might have been offended. As things stood, he was grateful Parker was willing to let him lean on her without making it into a thing.

“You guys are good – I’ll give you that,” the oldest of the three men covering them said with a small nod of his head. “Against anyone else, you would have prevailed.”

“If you knew him, you’d understand what a huge compliment that is,” the pretty boy standing to his right said. “Actually, sweetheart,” he said with a glance at Parker, “you really need to call me. We could use somebody like you.”

“Qatar, officer’s club, Christmas 1990,” Eliot said, before Parker could tell pretty boy exactly what she thought of his invitation. “I know who all of you are, and you can kiss my ass with your offer.”

“Wasn’t making the offer to you,” Lieutenant Templeton “Faceman” Peck snapped. Hannibal Smith, the team’s military strategist, was suddenly studying Eliot through narrowed eyes.

“Whatever you’re thinking son – let it go,” he said. “Our employer has the legit claim here.”

“Only for the mineral rights,” Parker countered. She started forward, but Eliot tightened his grip; holding her next to him. “The Johansons have been farming there for over two hundred years!”

“We’re not going to argue about this,” Smith said. “The Johansons have a fair offer for the property, and what Granger International will do with the lithium coming out of that site will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. All those people back to work, able to support themselves and their families…”

“And how much of the factory are you going to end up owning?” Eliot asked, raising an eyebrow. “Ten percent? Twenty? Enlightened self-interest doesn’t put you on the side of the angels, Colonel Smith, so you should probably just stop pretending that it does.”

Most people would have missed the muscles tightening along Hannibal’s jawline, but Eliot wasn’t most people. “You seen the price on semi-automatic ammunition lately?” the older man snorted.

That prompted a smile from Eliot – one of his most unfriendly grins. “I don’t use guns.”  
***********************************  
 _The A-Team._ Hardison would have felt like they were being copied by a pack of wannabes, except this group had been in the “bad guys make the best good guys” game for at least a decade and a half longer than they had. The hacker did make a mental note to ask Nate if he’d drawn any inspiration for the team from the soldiers-turned-mercenaries.

Because reasons, of course.

The back door of Lucille 4.5 (don’t ask) swung open, and Eliot half-fell, half-collapsed into the van. “Do you feel even a tenth as bad as you look?” Hardison asked, sparing a glance for his teammate.

“Somebody forgot to mention giants in the briefing,” Eliot groaned, pushing himself far enough to one side to make room for Parker. “Also? Fuck you.”

“Be nice,” the thief ordered, jabbing Eliot sharply in the meaty part of his thigh with her toe. Directing her attention to Hardison she asked, “Is there a possibility you overlooked plans for a factory?”

Knowing that he was going to be called on to justify his research, Hardison had been assembling the information Parker would want while monitoring their retreat and keeping as close an eye as he could on the A-Team’s actions. “No, and no,” he said, calling up the necessary screens. “Nothing beyond that one council meeting I told you guys about where Granger International was supposed to make a presentation and they canceled at the last minute. The local newspapers are talking about virtually nothing else, but the building department doesn’t even have schematics in hand, much less a set of buildable documents.”

Maneuvering herself so that she could read over his shoulder, Parker steadied herself with a hand between Hardison’s shoulder blades. “You seemed to know these guys,” she said at last, looking down at Eliot. “Any chance they’re part of a con?”

“They’re mercs,” Eliot said, surprising Hardison with the amount of distaste he could pack into a single word. “Any good they set out to do is going to be compromised by their need for a payday.”

“Should we offer them a payoff then?” Hardison asked, yelping as Parker swatted him across the back of the head. “What was that for?”

“We don’t give away the money,” Parker snapped. She thought for a second then said, “That one guy that looked like a model – he was acting like Sophie when she wants something.”

Hardison was once again possessed with an urge to track down whoever had done such a number on Parker’s image of herself and beat him nigh unto death. The idea that someone as beautiful and perfect as Parker couldn’t imagine a good looking man flirting with her for its own sake, well – it wasn’t right.

“Peck is a grifter,” Eliot confirmed. “Nowhere near Sophie’s level, but whatever he wants to talk to Parker about it could be everything from a date to discovering what intel we have on the people currently paying their bills.”

“Then I guess we better get busy and figure out which one it is,” Parker said, grinning. “You got his number, Hardison?”

Point of fact he did, but before turning it over Hardison gave her his most serious expression. “No forks, no stabbing – remember what we’ve been working on!”  
****************************************  
“I’m telling you Face,” Murdock said from his position on the couch, “you’re completely out of your league with this one. I should take the meeting.”

Face tried to suppress his shudder at the idea of Murdock wooing the head of a team who had come very close to beating them, and almost succeeded. “Parker was trained by Archie Leach, Murdock,” he said, checking his tie in the mirror. “Despite what’s in that folder that means that she’s old school. She has a code, and I can work with that.”

“She’s been hanging out with Eliot Spencer,” BA growled. He was still moving stiffly after his fight with the hitter, a fact that had them all uneasy. “Don’t know if I’d count on her still following some code.”

“Not to mention it’s common knowledge that Parker is insane,” Hannibal interjected. “Although the Spencer connection doesn’t really thrill me either.”

“See?” Murdock crowed, gesturing at Hannibal. “Even the Colonel sees it – this lady and I were destined to be together!” He jumped to his feet and bounded across the room until he was well inside Face’s personal space. “I’m tellin’ ya Face – she’s too much woman for you!”

“ _I’m_ the grifter on this team,” Face said, turning to face the others and forcing Murdock back a step. “Even if I was meeting with Sophie Devereaux herself, it would be _my_ risk to take.”

He knew none of them were convinced by his position, but they stopped trying to get him to change his mind. In the privacy of his own head he could admit that he’d been more than a little surprised to get Parker’s call.

 _”I can’t stop thinking about your offer. I’d like to meet and discuss things further.”_ Face was still trying to be professional and not infuse her words with all the sexual innuendo he possibly could, but the more time he spent thinking about it the harder it became.

At least they were meeting on a rooftop, and not an intimate restaurant – which had been Face’s first suggestion. “I think we both need to keep our heads in the game,” had been her response. “My people tell me that inside of a restaurant your concentration falls to pieces.”

Lucky for Face’s sense of composure, the building Parker had selected for their meeting had an elevator that went to the top floor. After that it was a matter of one flight of stairs before he was out in the open air.

“You know Granger International has no plans to build a factory, right?”

Face had a moment where he regretted not taking Murdock up on his offer. His teammate was the only person he knew who could consistently startle him; being surprised by Parker only seemed to drive home that he’d stupidly come to this meeting without backup. “I’ve seen the plans,” he said, turning to face the thief. She was standing on top of the parapet wall, hair blowing wild in the breeze, as comfortable on the edge of a two hundred foot drop as the rest of the world was on solid ground.

“I’ve seen the proposals, the financing, all of it,” he continued, closing the distance that separated them. “I get why you were taken in by the Johansons, but you have to appreciate the greater good factor here.”

“The greater good being your thirty percent of nothing?”

“Why should I believe you?” Face asked, taking a few careful steps forward. Parker jumped down off the wall then, landing uncomfortably close to him.

“Actually I don’t care if you believe me or not,” she said, cocking her head to one side as she studied him.

Face felt a tremor shiver down his spine. “Why not?”  
***********************************  
“Yeah, should’ve seen that coming,” Hannibal snorted. Above their heads Face was hanging by his heels over the side of the building where he’d gone to meet the thief Parker.

“You’re awful calm with Faceman inches from a messy death,” BA observed.

“They’re not going to kill him,” Hannibal said, brushing aside the idea with a negligent wave of his hand. “You saw the research. You heard Spencer. They don’t even use guns – they’re certainly not going to resort to murder to get what they want.”

“I told him he should have let me take the meeting,” Murdock sighed, shaking his head. “Too much woman for him.”

“We gonna go get him?” BA asked, clearly still not entirely comfortable with Hannibal’s assessment of their circumstances. Smith shook his head.

“We’re going to listen to what Mr. Spencer has to say first,” he said, pivoting smoothly to where two men were emerging from the shadows. “Nice entrance.”

Eliot inclined his head. “Thanks. I feel like I need to correct you on one point though – it is not our intention to harm Lieutenant Peck, but you should keep one thing in mind going forward. The rumors are true: Parker’s insane.”

They all heard Murdock’s blissful sigh – Hannibal muttered a silent prayer that the man wasn’t _actually_ drawing hearts all over the paperwork he’d been engrossed in since they left their safe house. “Okay, so you’re not going to kill our man, but you want us to know that you could. Got it. Next?”

The man standing at Spencer’s left extended something towards BA. When Baracus took the object, Hannibal saw for himself that it was a flash drive. “I know you’ve already started looking deeper into Granger International’s activities,” Eliot said. “That will tell you the rest of what you need to know. There will be no factory, no jobs, no economic relief for these people, and no thirty percent of the profits for you.”

“You backed the wrong horse,” his partner said. BA had pulled out his tablet and was busy checking the information he’d been given. Hannibal wasn’t surprised when he glanced up at them – the truth of their situation plain in his expression.

“So what now?” he asked, turning back to face Spencer with a small sigh of resignation. “I should warn _you_ that I’m not a fan of leaving town with my tail between my legs. Not to mention we’re owed a pretty sizeable amount of payback on Granger for them duping us like this.”

In the privacy of his own mind he decided that he liked Spencer’s smile about as much as he enjoyed BA’s. It wasn’t a happy smile. It would likely never be a happy smile. “We’ve got no problem paying your standard fee to come on board and help us sort this situation out,” the hitter said. “You’ve just got to be willing to play by our rules.”

“No guns?” Hannibal asked.

Eliot nodded. “To start. You’re too good for guns anyway.” He extended his hand; a beat later, Hannibal took it. “Welcome aboard,” the hitter finished.

Another thin, pathetic cry for help threaded its way down to them. “Tell me,” Hannibal asked, raising an eyebrow at Eliot. “Why target Face?”

“He gave us the easiest opening,” Spencer said. Glancing at his friend he added. “Plus he babbles almost as much as Hardison – I figured it would make our conversation go smoother all the way around.”

His friend – Hardison – touched his ear and said, “Okay Mama – let him up. We’re all friends now.”

Hannibal laughed, shaking his head at the strange turn a straightforward for-profit job had taken. “I love it when a plan comes together,” he muttered, taking out a fresh cigar and lighting up.


End file.
